Snowden is a patriot, but they can't just let him walk so anybody with a clearance thinks they can do the same.

My thought is that Snowden will have to be in exile for 10-20 years until he finally gets a pardon from President Chelsea Clinton.

The GRU cant let him leave...yet..You have a pretty low bar for Patriotism..The telephone metadata is a extremely minute amount of info he stole...The rest is some extremely heavy duty stuff that compromised sources and methods and will cost BILLIONS and lives....

The GRU cant let him leave...yet..You have a pretty low bar for Patriotism..The telephone metadata is a extremely minute amount of info he stole...The rest is some extremely heavy duty stuff that compromised sources and methods and will cost BILLIONS and lives....

Care to comment on PRISM, which was a hell of a lot more than telephone metadata.

The GRU cant let him leave...yet..You have a pretty low bar for Patriotism..The telephone metadata is a extremely minute amount of info he stole...The rest is some extremely heavy duty stuff that compromised sources and methods and will cost BILLIONS and lives....

Oh no...it's going to cost a lot of money to stop the government from trampling all over the fourth amendment?

It's like a thief complaining to the judge that the only reason he will serve time is because someone caught him...

The GRU cant let him leave...yet..You have a pretty low bar for Patriotism..The telephone metadata is a extremely minute amount of info he stole...The rest is some extremely heavy duty stuff that compromised sources and methods and will cost BILLIONS and lives[/....

Care to comment on PRISM, which was a hell of a lot more than telephone metadata.

The journalists have a lot more stuff that they're vetting and running by legal, etc.

I can see how the NSA lost the flick and it became, "AND, AND AND we can get this and sort this, and math it with this, and churn this and we'll know when he needs to take a dump before he does!" and nowhere along the way was anybody saying, "Umm guys, should we be doing this?"

I just wish he had somehow run everything past a sympathetic senator or something before making it public.

apart from any opinion of snowden and the document releases, there's one thing i believe to be true - the public discussion over the programs would have never taken place if he had addressed his concerns through acceptable or proper channels, even with help from sympathetic lawmakers.

once that kind of power is granted, it will be protected at all costs, and never willingly given up, or dissenters listened to. like asking a wartime general if more troops are needed, or asking a surgeon if surgery is recommended - ask any government agency if it's legal, and the answer will most likely be "yes".

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The truth will set you free. But not until it is finished with you. - David Foster Wallace

apart from any opinion of snowden and the document releases, there's one thing i believe to be true - the public discussion over the programs would have never taken place if he had addressed his concerns through acceptable or proper channels, even with help from sympathetic lawmakers.

once that kind of power is granted, it will be protected at all costs, and never willingly given up, or dissenters listened to. like asking a wartime general if more troops are needed, or asking a surgeon if surgery is recommended - ask any government agency if it's legal, and the answer will most likely be "yes".

But why is Snowden's granting himself the power to release whatever documents he feels like any better?

I'll wait for all those supposed emails to be released to believe that he sent them.

If you are waiting for the NSA to be honest, don't hold your breath. Time and again, NSA officials went before CONGRESS and testified that they were not doing certain things, only to later be proven that they were doing those exact things.